Honey's been used by humans as a sweetener since ancient times. It's great in tea, on toast, as a glaze, and all sorts of other places, and it has numerous properties that make it well suited for use as a sweetening and flavoring agent in baking.
But not all honey is created equal. Most of the stuff you find widely available in supermarkets is—like so much supermarket food—heavily processed. It's excessively filtered, heated, and even a lot of domestic honey is cut with cheaper honey from other countries. In many cases, these honeys of foreign origin aren't tested for pesticides or heavy metals. And processing is never good for food; it invariably reduces or destroys a whole food's nutrient content.
Benefits of Raw Honey
Raw honey—honey that hasn't been heated and processed—offers certain benefits. Its naturally occurring enzymes and nutrients remain intact, supplying trace amounts of a variety of minerals, antioxidants, and other healthful compounds.
Raw honey has also shown itself to be an effective cough suppressant. Plus, it soothes a sore throat related to coughing. Its viscous texture coats the mouth and throat, providing relief from irritation. In addition, many people find that a serving of raw honey shortly before bedtime helps them fall asleep faster and sleep more soundly.
The best benefit of raw honey, though, comes when you eat it from a local source. Because it contains pollen spores from flowering plants in your area, it introduces and acclimates your body to these potential allergens, allowing you to naturally build up a tolerance to them. So, eating raw honey produced in your area can actually reduce your seasonal allergies.
Get Acquainted with Central Florida's Honey Feast
Here at Central Florida 55Plus Realtors, we love the raw local honey made by Honey Feast! They take so much pride in their honey. They don't rush things with automated production, they filter the honey as minimally as possible, they don't heat the honey or otherwise process it in any way, and they provide their bees with organic flowers from which to gather nectar.
This is as healthy as honey gets, and it's local to Central Florida, making it ideal for building up your tolerance to common pollen allergens found all around the area.
It's also delicious. Honey Feast makes nine different varieties of honey, including tupelo, orange blossom, Florida holly, wild flower, Brazilian pepper, gallberry, mangrove, palm, and sea grape. Each type has a delightfully distinct flavor profile.
Check them out and look for their honeys in many specialty shops all around Central Florida!
